"I have arrived at a point of coming full circle, that is, completely turning around and standing at a spot higher than the original position, seeing the past and a little bit of the future. This is an ideal position where I begin to know how to create the possibilities of both Dao and No-Dao. When you have Dao, you need to ascend and grasp reality. During No-Dao, you do not need to ascend, you are in an empty object, floating freely."
Born in 1952 in Beijing, Huang Rui is one of China’s most highly regarded artists and one of the pivotal protagonists of the first non-conformist art groups to emerge from China in 1979. The Stars (Xing Xing 星星) Art Group, established in the late 1970s, following the end of the Cultural Revolution. The Stars used art to promote social ideologies and initiated some of the first free art expressions in the Post-Mao era. Huang Rui’s important Space Structure painting series produced in Beijing (1979-1984) took a radical artistic position of abstract form derived from Chinese ideas. His works are deeply rooted in Eastern philosophy especially Daoism and the Yijing (I-Ching or Book of Changes). Huang Rui is an artist who works daily whether he is having an exhibition plan or not. Initially a painter, his practice includes photography, installation, performance and sculpture.